Hotto
Hotto is a village in Dragon Quest XI. Located on a steppe west of the Door of Departure and built at the foot of Mount Huji, Hotto is home to a sauna. It is also notable for its ironwork, as well as being the site of a legendary conflict with monsters in the past. It is modelled after mountain villages in feudal Japan, complete with a Shinto shrine. Story Road to Yggdrasil Narrowly escaping pursuit by Hendrik's mounted cadre, the Luminary and Erik stumble into the Door of Departure, and are teleported to a rocky expanse near a river. They enter the village of Hotto, where a jovial man greets them. He invites them to take a rest in the saunas, to which Erik reluctantly obliges, taking note of his funky odour. As the Luminary makes his way to the baths, he runs into a pigtailed red-hooded girl in search of her sister. The local bouncer won’t let her in because of her age. Though frustrated and hotheaded, the girl recruits our hero for help in locating her younger sister. He complies, but continues to the baths. As the Luminary and Erik take the time to relax, a young girl stumbles into the men’s sauna, and is looking for someone herself. However, Erik mistakes the girl, Connie, for the earlier girl‘s sibling, and introduces the two. The red-hooded girl corrects the pair, but realises she can use them to enter the bar, and so gets them to go along. Inside, the hooded girl manages to extract from the barkeep the whereabouts of her sister; he had seen her, but she went off to the west. Introducing herself as Veronica, the girl remembers that she was taken by a horde of monsters, but escaped and came back to town. Her sister, therefore, must have been searching for her, and now Veronica must go back to the monsters‘ lair to find her. Veronica joins the men on the trek back to the grotto. There, they find the younger sibling, Serena, having nodded off near a holy fountain. At first, Serena does not recognise Veronica, but the latter‘s demeanor all but confirms the relation. Serena is puzzled as to why her older sister would be “younger“ than she, as is Erik. With guidance from Yggdrasil, the four continue onward to find a monster, Jarvis, who has stolen Veronica‘s magical powers. As it turns out, Jarvis‘s procedure also regressed Veronica‘s appearance; she is the same age as Serena, and only appears as a 10-year-old. Jarvis and his shadows come after Veronica again, but this time, the party engages him. After a tense battle, Jarvis falls, revealing his allegiance to a “Lord of Shadows“ and warning them of what is to come. After retrieving Veronica‘s power, the four discover a set of holding cells to find a man named Noah, who thanks them for freeing him and returns to the village, though not before Erik recognises him as "Noah the Know-It-All", a notorious information monger. After a night‘s rest, the party goes back to the bar in Hotto, and squeezes more information out of Noah, who, after being reunited with Connie, has had a few too much. Even as he is still plastered drunk, Noah says he saw a branch of what may be Yggdrasil Herself. Swearing an oath to the Luminary, the twins Veronica, a wizard, and Serena, a priestess, join the party for good. They set off for Gallopolis in search of their next lead. Rise of the Lord of Shadows After the Fall of Yggdrasil, our heroes first witness a vision in Havens Above that tells them how to forge the fabled Sword of Light as was done centuries before, in order to replace that which was seized by Mordegon. Erdwin and his party visited three sites to gather the materials required. While Hotto did not have the raw materials, it possessed the means by which to forge the sword: a great Crucible within the heart of Mount Huji. Therein was the first weapon of its kind created. Unfortunately for the people of Hotto, the dragon Tatsunaga has resurfaced, demanding sacrifices to be kept at bay. The high priestess Miko and her son Ryu were supposed to have slain him; but Ryu was cursed to become a new incarnation. Miko had kept hidden that Tatsunaga was in fact her son and wanted no harm to come to him. Two children, Atsuo and Atsuko, wish to spare their mother from becoming the next sacrifice, and so use a beast costume to hinder Miko and ward off other travellers. When the Luminary agrees to help them, he and his party investigate Mount Huji to find Tatsunaga asleep. Shortly thereafter, he wakes and attacks the village. Miko attempts to placate the beast by offering herself to him. This does nothing save for killing her, and he attacks the party. Tatsunaga then retreats to recover from the skirmish. When the party climbs Mount Huji again, they make for his lair and engage him. Tatsunaga falls, and the spirit of Ryu rises from the corpse. He tells the party his story and how he came upon a magical mirror said to dispel any curse. But the dragon overtook him as such that he was unable to finish what he set out to do. Ryu departs for the hereafter at peace, and Hotto is saved. Dialect Residents of the village speak in haiku, using a typical 5-7-5 pattern for each stanza of three verses. This appears to be learned behaviour, as children sometimes deviate from it. Callbacks *Hotto's musical themes are both remixes of the theme used in the village of Jipang, from The Seeds of Salvation. *Hotto also shares several plot elements with Jipang, including its thematic dialect. Other languages Category:Dragon Quest XI towns and cities